


Something to Do With Magic

by exandriantrashpanda (topothesia)



Category: Critical Role (Web Series) RPF
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 13:36:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21321037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/topothesia/pseuds/exandriantrashpanda
Summary: They’ve all got their post-game rituals. Some of them start right as Matt starts wrapping things up -- closing their iPads, tidying their dice, taking their phones off silent, making sure that they’re ready to leave the table as soon as Matt says “Is it Thursday yet?” and the cameras cut away. Others start after the game, and what they are depend on what’s happened at the table.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 52





	Something to Do With Magic

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for a prompt at the critical kink meme. This version corrects a mistake I made in the version posted there.

They’ve all got their post-game rituals. Some of them start right as Matt starts wrapping things up -- closing their iPads, tidying their dice, taking their phones off silent, making sure that they’re ready to leave the table as soon as Matt says “Is it Thursday yet?” and the cameras cut away. Others start after the game, and what they are depend on what’s happened at the table. 

Some nights are joyful: hilarious encounters; triumphant victories; comical one-shots. 

Then there’s lots of reminiscing, repeating their favorite lines, reliving their favorite moments, feting the hero(es) of the hour. They’re physical people, even when confined to chairs for three hours -- after that restriction’s been taken away, they’re in each other’s personal spaces even more, coming together in a constellation of embraces in various combinations. 

“Lemur! That was amazing!” Travis crows, scooping Liam into a hug that lifts him off the floor after one of Liam’s one shots.

“Don’t break him!” Sam calls as he heads down the hallway.

“You are not my mother,” Liam snipes. 

“No, I’m your husband,” Sam says with a smirk, sauntering over to the two of them. As soon as Travis sets Liam down, Sam pulls Liam into an embrace of their own to a chorus of catcalls.

“Get a room,” Brian says as he wanders onto the set, and both Sam and Liam flip him off while continuing to kiss. 

“Poor Foster, all alone with his lady love on the opposite coast,” Taliesin says teasingly. “Who’s going to take you home?” 

Brian sighs mock-tragically. “I’ll carry on somehow. Maybe catch up on Bachelor in Paradise.”

“No you fucking won’t,” Travis says. “C’mon then.”

Brian blinks up at Travis, who gestures for Brian to precede him to where Laura is waiting. She turns her head and winks at him, and understanding dawns across Brian’s face. “Well. All right then.”

“My goodness,” Taliesin says. “We are busy little bees.”

“You act like you don’t have a standing invitation to come home with us,” Marisha says, arching an eyebrow at Taliesin. 

“Well then,” Taliesin says. “I suppose I should count myself among the fortunate, then. Shall we?”

Some nights are frustrating: the enemy gets away; the plan fails; the dice seem perpetually against them. 

“Tacos,” Marisha says after their attempted heist ends with all of them in jail, and Matt nods. She looks around the table as they’re all standing, extending the invitation to all of them. 

There’s some token protest -- “why did we do this on Thursdays when so many of us work on Fridays?” -- but they all find themselves agreeing, slipping out to their cars and reuniting at their favorite location for bargain Mexican food.

“You’d think we’d be sick of each other by now,” Matt says, looking around the battered Formica booth that they’ve crammed themselves into. “Or that you all wouldn’t want to keep being in the same room with me for a while after what I just did to you.”

There’s a general outcry at that -- of course they’re not sick of each other yet. Of course they’re not mad at Matt. They started a company together, didn’t they? They’re friends. Best friends. Buddies. Beyond friends. Family. 

“Dungeons and fucking Dragons, man,” Liam says later, when they’re hugging each other goodbye in the parking lot, their stomachs already starting to regret some of what they’ve eaten, “Dungeons and Dragons.”

Some nights are terrifying: the shadows creep across the table; the villains come from within and without; and they’re so small against such vast forces of darkness.

“I’m not fucking sleeping tonight,” Travis complains after the end of one part of their crawl through the Laughing Hand’s dungeon. “This was worse than a haunted house.”

“Poor beebee,” Laura says, hopping into Travis’s lap and twining her arms around his neck. 

“Is this a two person hug or can Travis’s lap take more people?” Marisha asks.

“Let’s find out!” Laura chirps, tugging Marisha down to perch on Travis’s lap with her. 

Marisha tugs Ashley in with them a minute later, and then Taliesin gets pulled into their gravitational orbit, and before long it becomes a puppy pile that spills onto the floor, all of them taking reassurance from each other. 

Some nights are terrible: all is lost, or at least it appears to be. 

“Molly can’t be dead. I mean, he can’t be dead-dead,” Laura babbles through Facetime at Liam, having called him as soon as the broadcast stopped. Travis is hovering in the background, the baby slumped on his shoulder. “I should -- I mean, Jester should have been there! This is -- this is my fault.”

Matt sighs, glancing over to where Taliesin and Dani are hugging hard, both of their shoulders shaking. “Tell Laura it’s not her fault,” he calls to Liam.

“Tell her yourself,” Liam says, handing his phone to Matt and standing up from the table, going over to wrap his arms around Taliesin from the other side of Dani, sandwiching Taliesin between them. 

“It’s going to be okay,” Liam says. “We’ve handled this before. We’ll handle it again. You’re amazing, you know that?”

“I know,” Taliesin mumbles wetly. “Just...fuck.”

“Yeah,” Liam says. “Fuck.”

“I, uh, here’s your phone,” Matt says as he approaches, standing back a little from the tripartite embrace. Liam snakes out a hand and takes it from Matt before wrapping his arms around Taliesin again.

“Taliesin,” Matt says. Now that he doesn’t have to be the dungeon master, the fearless leader, the cat herder; now that the cameras are off and the mics are silent and it’s just all of them together again, the impact of what just happened is starting to sink in.

“You’re still my best friend, Matthew,” Taliesin says, although his voice is shaking.

“I just — ” Matt says, and then he pauses.

“Let’s go home,” Marisha says, coming up and draping an arm around Matt’s waist. “Let’s go home and we’ll talk about this in the morning, okay?”

Matt sighs but lets Marisha lead him away.

“You going to be okay to go home?” Liam asks. 

“Spoken like an art dad,” Taliesin says affectionately, releasing Dani after giving her a kiss on the forehead. “But. Yeah? I think so? Going to stay off the Internet, though.”

“Smart choice,” Liam says, kissing the back of Taliesin’s head and pulling away. “Sam! Let’s go,” he calls.

Sam dashes in and gives Taliesin a lightning fast hug. “If you need me,” he says. “If you need any of us…”

“I promise I’ll be in touch,” Taliesin says. “I think I need to be alone right now, though. Start to process this. Start planning...the next thing.”

“Alcohol,” Liam says to Sam as they move away. “I need some. Your place or mine?”

Taliesin’s got more text notifications than he can count by the time he does finally make it home. He replies to the group thread with a quick note saying that he’s home, he’s fine, stop worrying and go to sleep.

None of them sleep much that night, though, even the ones who aren’t being woken by a newborn.

Some nights are, well, a little of everything. 

Vex and Percy’s wedding, for example, even though that didn’t happen live, still feels the same as a live game.

“Sam Riegel, you magnificent bastard!” Travis crows once they’re done. 

“I cannot take anything you say seriously when you’re wearing that,” Sam says, gesturing at the entirety of Travis. 

“You know you love it,” Travis says, waving the money Sam’s had Ashley stuff in his arm garter aloft. 

“I still can’t believe you fucking did that,” Liam says. 

“I can’t believe Matt fucking let me do that,” Sam says. “But it was fitting? Scanlan’s last wish?” He sounds almost unsure.

“You didn’t have to,” Liam says again, crossing the table to climb into Sam’s lap.

“Of course I didn’t have to,” Sam says, wrapping his arms around Liam. “I wanted to. I wanted to make up for the last time.”

“You know there’s nothing to make up for,” Liam says.

“Wait,” Laura says. “Did you know?” she asks, her eyes darting between Liam and Matt. “Did you two know Sam was going to do that?!”

“Uh. Yeah?” Liam says. “Sam asked us.”

“You motherfuckers!” Laura says, getting up and punching Sam in the arm, followed by LIam, and then crossing over to smack Matt on the arm. “You fucking knew that was going to happen on my fucking wedding day!”

Sam laughs. “It was worth it, wasn’t it?”

“Of course it fucking was, but … you motherfucker!” Laura says. 

Taliesin grabs Laura around the waist before she can stomp over and smack anyone again. “C’mon, graph paper wife, let’s go change out of these ridiculous clothes and go have a celebration that doesn’t get raided by vampires,” he says, kissing her cheek affectionately.

“Oh, I’m keeping this on,” Travis says as he stands up.

“Of course you are,” Ashley says. “But it’s one of my last nights in town, and I’m not spending it all at this table, so let’s go.” 

“You heard the lady,” Brian says, and all of them except for Matt file away from the table in twos and threes, talking excitedly about what happened and how they can’t wait until it airs.

“Everything all right?” Marisha asks, having turned back when she realized Matt wasn’t with them.

“Yeah. Just...sometimes I can’t believe all this,” Matt says. “This is my life. This is our life!”

“Me either,” Marisha says. “But let’s reminisce later. We’ve got a party to go to.”

Matt smiles and kisses her before taking her hand and walking away with her from the table.


End file.
